Research Critique of "The Password is Dead: Long Live Password" by Ryan Wade

Passwords usually act as security measures to people’s privacy. However, in this research Ryan Wade tends to argue against the faith that people have in passwords. Instead of relying on passwords, Wade says that people should use cheap alternatives such as the two-factor authentication or biometrics. His views are worth heeding and compelling. However, he did not consider some aspects in his research. In this research, he uses words such as “outmoded” and “outdated” to imply the state of passwords. In my own views, I do not consider the use of passwords as outdated. This stems from the fact that many people and organizations around the world still use passwords to store their confidential information. Perhaps, the use of passwords is on the increase, which is contrary to Wade's views. For instance, the increase in the use of social media, such as the social networking sites, has increased the use of passwords. For instance, one is required to have a password before accessing these sites.

In this article, Wade blames the use of passwords for some organizations’ information breach. This claim is irrelevant and baseless, as he does not give evidence to support it. Many organizations have been using passwords. During this period, there is no time their information leaked to the public. Breach of personal or organization information can be blamed on people’s carelessness. For instance, the IT department might be incompetent, which might lead to the company’s information to leak to the public. This is brought by the lack of updating the system’s security, thus enabling the spyware software to release the information to the public. If passwords are used efficiently, organization information cannot be breached.

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Wade goes on to claim that people’s dependence on passwords is ludicrous. For instance, he claims that people use passwords on simple matters, such as on the thumbprint scanner powered by a USB. What he fails to understand while making this claim is that there are no major websites which adopt biometrics or the two-factor authentication, which could have acted as verification options. It is very difficult for consumers to adopt a new technology. This is if not a format that connects with them. While making this assertion, Wade was supposed to note responsibilities that were shared.

He goes on to say that, problems might occur if a person using passwords has a bad memory. For example, organizations and people need to come up with long and complicated passwords, which people cannot guess. Long passwords are usually hard to remember. Once they are forgotten, resetting them can lead to security breaches. When this happens, there is usually a hassle in the organization. This statement can be both true and false. Some people have poor memories. This makes it hard for them to remember some of their passwords. However, some organizations have come up with ways of storing their passwords. Scientists are innovating software that will be used to retrieve these passwords whenever needed. This eliminates the process of resetting passwords if people in the IT department forget them, since it can be dangerous to the organizations’ security. Despite these criticisms, I still believe that passwords are still popular in today’s society. Many people like using them because of their simplicity. This is unlike the biometrics that is very complex thus very difficult to use.